GENEVA: Global food security monitors said on Friday that Nigeria’s Borno state was at increased risk of famine, with one study projecting the number of those affected will rise to 115,000 in 2017 from 55,000 this year.
The northeastern state is the area worst hit by the seven-year Boko Haram insurgency that has killed 15,000 people and uprooted more than 2 million during the militants’ attempt to create a “caliphate” in the area.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), which is backed by UN and other aid agencies, issued a special alert calling for urgent humanitarian action.
“There is an elevated likelihood that famine is ongoing and will continue in the inaccessible areas of Borno State assuming conditions will remain similar or worse to those observed in Bama and Banki towns from April to August of 2016,” it said.
“The current response is insufficient to meet the very large emergency assistance needs.”
People displaced by conflict are worst affected, it said, adding that low crop production, disrupted livelihoods and financial crisis were also to blame.
Nigerian military forces backed by troops from neighboring states have in recent months ousted Boko Haram from most of an area the size of Belgium that they controlled until early 2015, revealing thousands living in famine-like conditions.
The US-based Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) has said at least 2,000 people may have died of famine in the region this year, and the United Nations has said 75,000 children could starve to death over the next few months if they do not receive humanitarian assistance.
The IPC cited a report by the UN-backed Cadre Harmonize, a regional food security partnership that found 115,000 people in Borno state and more than 5,000 in Yobe state would be at risk from famine in the second half of 2017.
The FEWS NET study had confirmed the alarming situation and revealed an ongoing elevated risk of famine that was likely to continue into 2017, the IPC statement said.
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Nigeria famine risk rising, those in danger may double in 2017
Nigeria famine risk rising, those in danger may double in 2017
China is the real threat, Taiwan says in rebuff to Munich speech
- China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, a view the government in Taipei rejects
TAIPEI: China is the real threat to security and is hypocritically claiming to uphold UN principles of peace, Taiwan Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung said on Sunday in a rebuff to comments by China’s top diplomat at the Munich Security Conference.
China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, a view the government in Taipei rejects, saying only Taiwan’s people can decide their future.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, addressing the annual security conference on Saturday, warned that some countries were “trying to split Taiwan from China,” blamed Japan for tensions over the island and underscored the importance of upholding the United Nations Charter.
Taiwan’s Lin said in a statement that whether viewed from historical facts, objective reality or under international law, Taiwan’s sovereignty has never belonged to the People’s Republic of China.
Lin said that Wang had “boasted” of upholding the purposes of the UN Charter and had blamed other countries for regional tensions.
“In fact, China has recently engaged in military provocations in surrounding areas and has repeatedly and openly violated UN Charter principles on refraining from the use of force or the threat of force,” Lin said. This “once again exposes a hegemonic mindset that does not match its words with its actions.”
China’s military, which operates daily around Taiwan, staged its latest round of mass war games near Taiwan in December.
Senior Taiwanese officials like Lin are not invited to attend the Munich conference.
China says Taiwan was “returned” to Chinese rule by Japan at the end of World War Two in 1945 and that to challenge that is to challenge the postwar international order and Chinese sovereignty.
The government in Taipei says the island was handed over to the Republic of China, not the People’s Republic, which did not yet exist, and hence Beijing has no right to claim sovereignty.
The republican government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong’s communists, and the Republic of China remains the island’s formal name.
China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, a view the government in Taipei rejects, saying only Taiwan’s people can decide their future.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, addressing the annual security conference on Saturday, warned that some countries were “trying to split Taiwan from China,” blamed Japan for tensions over the island and underscored the importance of upholding the United Nations Charter.
Taiwan’s Lin said in a statement that whether viewed from historical facts, objective reality or under international law, Taiwan’s sovereignty has never belonged to the People’s Republic of China.
Lin said that Wang had “boasted” of upholding the purposes of the UN Charter and had blamed other countries for regional tensions.
“In fact, China has recently engaged in military provocations in surrounding areas and has repeatedly and openly violated UN Charter principles on refraining from the use of force or the threat of force,” Lin said. This “once again exposes a hegemonic mindset that does not match its words with its actions.”
China’s military, which operates daily around Taiwan, staged its latest round of mass war games near Taiwan in December.
Senior Taiwanese officials like Lin are not invited to attend the Munich conference.
China says Taiwan was “returned” to Chinese rule by Japan at the end of World War Two in 1945 and that to challenge that is to challenge the postwar international order and Chinese sovereignty.
The government in Taipei says the island was handed over to the Republic of China, not the People’s Republic, which did not yet exist, and hence Beijing has no right to claim sovereignty.
The republican government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong’s communists, and the Republic of China remains the island’s formal name.
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